quick portrait with my daughter

[HijoD]

PLaying around in the front yard with a flower crown she just built.

Nikon D610
Nikon 50mm 1.8 G
1/1600
f/1.8
ISO 100

LR BW conversion

_PWP3470 by Javier Armstrong, on Flickr

[Shadowman]

Nice effort.

[JamesScott86]

That is beautiful! Excellent Shot!!!

[DougR]

Nice picture of a lovely model. There could be a whole series with that crown.

DougR

[Daisy Mae]

Beautiful girl, nice hi-key shot....you can almost feel the sunshine.

One little thing though...the hair/hairs falling across her eye keep distracting me .

[DEAN01]

Simply beautiful!

[Manfred M]

You've taken a nice shot, but there are a few of niggly little details that I have noticed.

You are getting a touch of distortion from shooting with the 50mm lens, but when all is said and done, it's something a lot of people are not going to notice; a longer focal length would have worked better for this shot.

While I understand you were going for a high key look, the lack of separation of the nose from the rest of the face does not particularly work for me. This is solely a lighting issue; frontal lighting is flat.

I'd be tempted to take out the piece(s) of hair that are in front of her eye in post.

[IzzieK]

Your daughter is a beautiful willing model...if she is mine, I'll practice on her some more...

[zen]

Enchanting! Wonderful! Haunting!

Congrats on a great shot!

zen

[D L]

Beautiful. I agree with all the positive comments here.

For me, this is the main improvement you could make:

While I understand you were going for a high key look, the lack of separation of the nose from the rest of the face does not particularly work for me. This is solely a lighting issue; frontal lighting is flat.

[bnnrcn]

I like the high key look of the image

[HijoD]

Thanks!

[HijoD]

Nice effort.

Thank you!

[HijoD]

That is beautiful! Excellent Shot!!!

Thank you! I have a great subject to work with. :-)

[HijoD]

Nice picture of a lovely model. There could be a whole series with that crown.

DougR

Thank you Doug. That is a great idea I might take her down to the beach with this crown to do a full shoot.

[HijoD]

Beautiful girl, nice hi-key shot....you can almost feel the sunshine.

One little thing though...the hair/hairs falling across her eye keep distracting me .

Yea I see what you mean about the hair. I actually loved it like that because it showed off the sharpness of my lens! LOL But yea If I print this and frame it I'll def get rid of it.

[HijoD]

Simply beautiful!

Thank you sir.

[HijoD]

You've taken a nice shot, but there are a few of niggly little details that I have noticed.

You are getting a touch of distortion from shooting with the 50mm lens, but when all is said and done, it's something a lot of people are not going to notice; a longer focal length would have worked better for this shot.

While I understand you were going for a high key look, the lack of separation of the nose from the rest of the face does not particularly work for me. This is solely a lighting issue; frontal lighting is flat.

I'd be tempted to take out the piece(s) of hair that are in front of her eye in post.

Yes I see what you mean about the distortion Her face looks a bit flat LOL you're right though friends and family on FB are not really noticing that. Next time I'll break out the 85mm.

The lighting was weird to be honest. This was shot on my drive way midday. I had her stand under the garage door while it was open so she was in the shade and back ground and to the right was super bright. I tried to expose for her face and in PP I just blew out everything except her face. Not much side light but you can tell a bit its from the side.

Thanks for the comment though I love feedback and critique!

[HijoD]

Your daughter is a beautiful willing model...if she is mine, I'll practice on her some more...

Izzie,

yes I am lucky to have such a wonderful model to practice on.

[Manfred M]

Yes I see what you mean about the distortion Her face looks a bit flat LOL you're right though friends and family on FB are not really noticing that. Next time I'll break out the 85mm.

I suspect that your friends and family on FB are not photographers and won't notice things like that. The CiC crowd, on the other hand, will notice. I would think that 85mm might be a bit short for head shots, but is definitely and improvement over the 50mm.

The lighting was weird to be honest. This was shot on my drive way midday.

That will tend to be problematic for sure. Having your daughter in the shade certainly is a step in the right direction, but mid-day light is very intense and quite unforgiving. You did quite well to avoid shadows around the eyes, but then this same lighting is not helping around the nose.

If you get a chance, try to shoot at "magic hour", when the lighting is more interesting (and flattering).

I had her stand under the garage door while it was open so she was in the shade and back ground and to the right was super bright. I tried to expose for her face and in PP I just blew out everything except her face. Not much side light but you can tell a bit its from the side.

Normally the "correct" procedure is to ensure that the bright side of the face is "properly" exposed and the other side of of the face can be a bit darker. This is important as you don't want to lose facial detail. If you hear the term "lighting ratio", this is the deliberate approach of having one side of the face being darker than the other. A 2:1 lighting ratio means that the dark side of the face is exposed at 1 stop darker than the brighter side. The 2:1 ratio is fairly common for use with women and children. A 3:1 or 4:1 lighting ratio gives you a far more dramatic look.

A high key image still needs to be properly exposed. Light coloured clothing and back lighting the person (sun behind the person) will give you a high key image, Fill lighting might be required to ensure that the face is properly lit.